Journey: Rebirth
by SubjectC
Summary: a retelling of journey, inspired by the Easter egg towards Thatgamecompany's second game, Flower. this is a story about a traveler named It, and it's adventure through the desert.
1. Chapter 1

_where am I?_  
 _who am I?_  
 _what do I look like?_

 _I should probably open my eyes._

It opened it's eyes to find itself sitting in a vast and unending desert.

 _is... this... sand?_  
as It stood up it looked around. this vast, unending desert looked like it really could go on forever.

 _what is that? a gravestone?_  
on a hill in front of It, stood two tall pillars, one taller than the other and had a long cloth banner tied to the octagonal hole at the top.  
once the traveller got it's bearings It climbed up the hill, only glancing at the stones before beholding a giant, split-peaked mountain.

 _I must go to that mountain._  
It slid down the hill to find, about 10 yards away, a glowing mark floating in the air.  
It was compelled to touch the floating glyph, not only through curiosity, but also through a sense that it wasn't complete.  
as It drew near, the glyph radiated some warmth. reaching out with it's billowing cloak, It touched the glph, only for it to break apart and swirl around It  
until a tugging feeling on the back of It's cowl caused It to look behind it. the glyph, once a floating symbol in the air, was now a part of It's cloak, in the form of a flapping scarf, no longer than your forearm would be.

 _wow, is that, a scarf? somehow, I feel weightless, like I can_ **fly!**  
just as It thought the word, It started to fly. only three seconds passed before It started to gently descend. It wanted to find all the glyphs so it could fly endlessly. eventually, after some walking around, It came upon a ruin, maybe a open air temple of some sort?

 _another glyph? oh yes! more flying!_  
It tried to touch the second glyph, but It didn't touch it, though the moving air from the leap seemed to be just enough to break it.  
the broken pieces of the glyph stitched themselves onto the end of It's scarf, now as long as the full length of an arm. climbing to the top of a broken platform, there were four long, tattered lengths of cloth that seemed to hold a grate closed. having learned how to somewhat speak, It's first instinct was to try and talk to the cloth, for some strange and unexplainable reason.

 _oh, flapping cloth in the wind, unwrap from your bonds, and open the way._  
"chiiiiirp!" It said, with It's thoughts poured into this one sound, the cloth regenerated their missing threads, then disappeared. the grate opened, only to release smaller scraps of cloth into the air, floating and flying of their own accord. once again It felt like it needed to talk to the tiny cloths.

 _oh, delicate piece of cloth, grant me flight and share your power with me._  
"cherp!" It said, all the pieces flew around It, lifting It off the ground and moved him over a large gap separating the platform and a ledge that was disconnected from the platform and the rest of the temple years ago. where the cloth swarm dropped It there was a statue, about 3 feet taller than It standing in the middle of the ledge, flanked on both sides by what appeared to be smaller stones, like the two on the hill. they had inscriptions on them, forming something like an alien sentence from a language long forgotten. after pacing for what felt like hours, It brushed one of the stones, causing the symbol on it to light up.

 _woah, what does this say? maybe if I light up the rest, I can understand what they say._  
It then ran and touched all the stones, It didn't realize this before, but after the first stone was touched a very quiet chant started happening in his head. with each stone activated the chanting grew louder, a new word being added with each new symbol lit.

bring fourth our ancestor to show us the origin.

 _I should probably chant this, maybe it will do something._  
"chiirrrp!" as the sound rang through the stones, all the symbols lifted off of them and shattered, with every piece converging on one circle in front of the large statue. It was so focused on the newly formed ring of light, It didn't notice the statue moved. The Ancestor let out a very loud chirp, spilling the history of how it's people came to be, how the mountain formed the Valley, and gave birth the the very first length of cloth. after the Ancestor's tale was done, it backed away and turned back into an inanimate statue.

 _... am I on the ground again? wow, but if the mountain created a valley, why is there a desert here? I need to know!_  
the circle faded and the shards flew to a large iron bar door, opening it with some supernatural force. It ran through, now set on travelling to the mountain, to find out what caused the Valley to regress into a barren desert.


	2. Chapter 2: the bridge

after emerging out of a very long hallway, It beheld a bridge, that had been broken into three tall pillars.

 _wow, what did this? I need to go down and investigate._  
It quickly sand-surfed down to the one piece of bridge that It could climb.  
It tried to fly up to the second section but fell painfully short. It then noticed a ruin with one of those tattered cloths.

 _oh, flapping cloth in the wind, unwrap from your bonds, and open the way!_  
the long piece of cloth reformed, and opened some kind of trap it was hold millions of tiny cloths  
that flew over to where the first bridge part was.

 _wha- whats happening?_  
the little scraps of cloth slowly stitched themselves into a huge sheet of fabric suspended in the air.  
the huge cloth now connected the first pillar to the sandy ground.

 _huh, this might be helpful_  
It tried to walk onto the fabric bridge, only to float instead.  
It quickly figured that the magic in the bridge was to blame.

 _I think... I think I can see, a statue?_  
It could get a glimpse at what was at the other side of the pillars, another Ancestor shrine.  
taking a look around from it's vantage point, It could see two more cloths flapping in the wind, one on the left, and one on the right.  
It could also see what could only be described as another floating glyph.

 _ooh, another one!_  
It jumped off the third-completed bridge and ran for the glyph.  
once It approached the glyph, it stopped dead in it's tracks, letting the wind break the glyph apart.  
just as before, It felt a weight lift off it's body.  
It quickly ran to another tattered cloth

 _release your bonds  
*chirp!*_ even more cloth scrap got released from the husk of stone, and formed another, longer cloth bridge.  
It could see another glyph nearby, so it decided to collect it. afterwards, It walked around a bit, eventually coming across two strips of cloth,  
It beckoned them to release, and so they did. instead of the scraps forming a bridge, they just floated there.

 _why would they stay? isn't there a bridge to build?_  
indeed, the bridge was not complete, but as It tried to find a reason why they didn't move from their spot, it noticed one more glyph.

 _delicate piece of cloth, share your power with me, and grant me flight!_  
*chirp!* the scraps lifted It off of the ground, and carried it to the ledge where the glyph hung.  
just a slight tap of It's leg shattered the glyph, so it could grow the scarf even longer.  
It descended back to the ground, then ran to the start of the bridge.

 _I think I can cross now_  
It glided across the cloth bridge, only to come to the third and final pillar.  
there was no bridge connecting the pillar to the platform where the Ancestor shrine stood. It pondered what to do, then decided.  
it gathered up energy in it's body, draining the scarf, and made a mighty leap from the pillar to the platform.  
with a little energy left, It made it to the other side. there stood more writing totems, humming with energy, yet inactive.

 _great, more stones. time to run around in circles_  
It touched every totem with speed, filling his mind with the chant

bring forth the ancestor, and reveal to us the rise.

this time, It did notice the inert statue become living cloth.  
the Ancestor flooded It's mind with the start of civilization, and the use of large strips of cloth to create light.  
once it's story was over, the Ancestor stepped back, and became stone once more.  
the excess power of the chant had caused a sandfall behind the statue to split, revealing a path forward.

 _so, the people before settled down here, and used the magic cloth? still no desert explanation, I need more.  
_ so It set of down the corridor, still to discover why the desert replaced the valley, for it still didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle.


End file.
